USS Intrepid stuck in the mud

November 07, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- The USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier that survived World War II bomb and kamikaze attacks, got stuck in the mud in the Hudson River on Monday as a fleet of tugboats tried to pull it from its berth for a $60 million renovation project. The ship -- a huge floating military museum that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists a year -- was supposed to be towed across the river to a dry dock in Bayonne, N.J. Six tugs pulled with a combined 30,000 horsepower but moved the Intrepid only about 15 feet. Not even an unusually high tide could free the 27,000-ton, 872-foot-long ship from the ooze. "We had the sun, the moon and the stars in alignment, and it was just a very disappointing day for us," said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. White said he was unsure whether officials would try again to move the ship, or refurbish the carrier where it sits. The ship was not blocking the Hudson's busy shipping lanes. The next high tide is Dec. 6, but that will be about a foot lower than Monday's, White said. The Intrepid has been moored at a pier on Manhattan's West Side for 24 years, during which time silt accumulated as much as 17 feet deep around its keel. The decommissioned ship no longer has engines, but it does still have its four propellers, each about 15 feet in diameter, and they got stuck in the mud. The Intrepid, launched in 1943, helped bring about the naval defeat of Japan. It also served during the Korean and Vietnam wars and was used to recover Mercury and Gemini astronauts after their space capsules splashed down at sea. The FBI used it as an operation center after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.